MEC 2011 awarded to Dipl.-Ing. Patrick Hölzl

[18 Nov. 2011] Yesterday the Mechatronics Award MEC 2011 was presented to Dipl.-Ing. Patrick Hölzl, an employee of ACCM and the Institute for Electrical Measurement Technology, in the category “Best Thesis at an Austrian University and in the Scientific Community of ACCM.” In his diploma thesis, Hölzl explored the use of digital image processing for quality assurance during the winding of steel plate coils.

Many industrial branches would be unthinkable without the use of rolled plates. After the 0.5 to 3 mm thick plate is produced, it is rolled into coils in order to enable better transport and handling. Due to mistakes in the rolling process or unprofessional transport, single plate layers can shift relative to each other. If shifting exceeds a specific measurement, the risk of damaged coils and waste material increases.
In his diploma thesis, “Industrial Use of Digital Image Processing Methods and Close-Range Photogrammetry for Quality Assurance of Steel Coils,” Hölzl developed a contact-free measurement system that determines shifts in winding measuring less than a millimeter. With a laser line that is projected diagonally on the front side of the coil and captured by a camera, the contour of the coil, and subsequently any shifts of single winding layers, can be calculated. Impermissibly high measurements trigger an alarm.

In 2009 Hölzl won the NRW Young Scientists Award for his work on a paper with similar project definitions: “Steel Coil, Straps and Packaging Recognition Natural Illumination.” The award ceremony was held in the North Rhine-Westphalia Academy of Sciences and Arts in Düsseldorf on 20 November 2009.

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